I heartily thank your Lordship for all your love, and for the joy
you are pleased both to conceive and express for my translation
to Canterbury; for I conceive all your expressions to me are very
hearty, and such I have hitherto found them. And now, since I am
there, (for my translation is to be on Thursday, Sept. 19th,) I must
desire your Lordship not to expect more at my hands than I shall be
able to perform, either in Church or State; and this suit of mine
hath a great deal of reason in it; for you write, that ordinary
things are far beneath that which you cannot choose but promise
yourself of me in both respects. But, my Lord, to speak freely, you
may easily promise more in either kind than I can perform. For, as
for the Church, it is so bound up in the forms of the common law,
that it is not possible for me, or for any man, to do that good which
he would, or is bound to do. For your Lordship sees, no man clearer,
that they which have gotten so much power in and over the Church,
will not let go their hold; they have, indeed, fangs with a witness,
whatsoever I was once said in passion to have. And for the State,
indeed, my Lord, I am for _Thorough_, but I see that both thick
and thin stays somebody, where I conceive it should not; and it is
impossible for me to go through alone. Besides, private ends are such
blocks in the public way, and lie so thick, that you may promise what
you will, and I must perform what I can, and no more.
Next, my Lord, I thank you heartily for your kind wishes to me, that
God would send me many and happy days where I now am to be. Amen. I
can do little for myself, if I cannot say so; but truly, my Lord, I
look for neither: not for many, for I am in years, and have had a
troublesome life; not for happy, because I have no hope to do the
good I desire; and, besides, I doubt I shall never be able to hold
my health there one year; for instead of all the jolting which I had
over the stones between London House and Whitehall, which was almost
daily, I shall have now no exercise, but slide over in a barge to the
Court and Star Chamber; and in truth, my Lord, I speak seriously, I
have had a heaviness hang upon me ever since I was nominated to this
place, and I can give myself no account of it, unless it proceed
from an apprehension that there is more expected from me than the
craziness of these times will give me leave to do.
* * * * *
Now, my Lord, why may you not write, as whilom you did to the Bishop
of London? The man is the same, and the same to you; but I see you
stay for better acquaintance, and till then you will keep distance. I
perceive, also, my predecessor's awe is upon you, but I doubt I shall
never hold it long; and I was about to swear by my troth, as you do,
but I remember oaths heretofore were wont to pass under the Privy
Seal, and not the Ordinary Seal of letters. Well, wiser or not, you
must take that as you find it; but I will not write any long letters
and leave out my mirth, it is one of the recreations I have always
used with my friends, and 'tis hard leaving an old custom, neither do
I purpose to do it; though I mean to make choice of my friends, to
whom I will use it. For proof of this, I here send your Lordship some
sermon notes which I have received from Cambridge; and, certainly, if
this be your method there, you ride as much aside as ever Croxton did
towards Ireland. I wish your Lordship all health and happiness, and
so leave you to the grace of God, ever resting
Your Lordship's very loving poor Servant,
W. CANT. ELECT.
FULHAM,
_Sept. 9th, 1633_.
SHIP MONEY. THE KING'S CASE LAID BEFORE THE JUDGES, WITH THEIR ANSWER
(1637).
=Source.--Rushworth.= Vol. ii., p. 355.